Swapped
by Unsubstantiated Assertion
Summary: To connect to the Moon primal, Rayla takes Callum on a "vision quest." After encountering a two-headed soulfang serpent, Callum comes to understand Moon magic better, but not how he would expect. With the serpent dead and trapped in each other's bodies, Callum and Rayla will need the help of some unlikely allies should they ever hope to get back to normal and return home.
1. Vision Quest!

_**This was inspired by an old reddit post I saw once asking what would happen if Rayla and Callum got bit by one of those two-headed soulfang serpents. This will be a multi-chaptered work but it'll be pretty light-hearted and silly. It's rated T solely due to the "vision quest" stuff being reminiscent of accidentally getting high. Otherwise it should be entirely canon-appropriate content wise, if perhaps a bit sillier.**_

_**While its probably discernible from context clues, I should clarify that this follows the pretty common assumption/theory that Callum and Rayla chose to stay at the Storm Spire after season three to learn magic and be a dragonguard, respectively.**_

* * *

For the past three months, Callum had trained under Ibis at the Storm Spire. He'd made substantial progress with sky magic, enough progress that the young mage's attention turned to the question of whether he'd be able to learn other types. After all, he'd already done the impossible once before. Why not a second time? As he'd successfully cast a moon spell with the help of Rayla's necklace, Callum made the Moon arcanum his next goal. He practiced sky magic during the day and tried to understand the Moon primal during the night. But while his sky magic skills flourished, he made no progress on the moon.

Callum sat at the precipice of the Storm Spire on the night of a full moon. His eyes were squeezed shut in concentration as he meditated. He tried to focus on the moonlight washing over him. Nothing happened.

"Think like the moon. Be like the moon," Callum chanted under his breath. He didn't hear the soft footsteps coming up from behind him.

"So, any progress?" Rayla sat down next to Callum.

Callum dropped his attempt at meditation and sighed. "Nope."

"You'll figure it out," Rayla put her hand on his back.

"I figured out sky magic in two weeks, I've been at this for months." He looked up at the moon. "There's got to be something I'm missing."

Rayla thought for a moment. "Well, when ya connected to the Sky primal, how exactly did ya do it? I just remember one moment ya were in a coma and next thing I know, poof, yer a primal mage."

"I had all these weird dreams when I was sick. My mom was there telling me to breathe, and I was the sail on a boat for some reason, and there was a creepy evil me..." Callum chuckled. "Wow, saying it loud makes it sound even weirder than I remember."

Rayla was silent.

"Uh, Rayla? You listening?" Callum waved his hand in front of her face.

She snapped to attention. "Sorry. I was just thinkin' about what ya said." Rayla let out an exaggerated yawn. "Anyway, we should be gettin' to bed. Can't have ya fall asleep mid-flight lesson."

Callum noticed how blatantly Rayla changed the subject, but he _was_ tired and the thought of nodding off in midair and plummeting to his death was a sobering one, so he just nodded and got up. Hand in hand, they descended the spire to the Dragonguards' barracks. Unbeknownst to Callum, Rayla's mind was abuzz with ideas. A plan started to form.

* * *

He was falling. He'd stayed up too late and dozed off during his lesson with Ibis. Awake now but too close to the ground to even try to re-summon his wings, Callum's heart raced as he prepared to meet his inevitable demise against the fast approaching ground. Callum tried to scream but by the time he'd opened his mouth it was too late and he splatted against-

Callum's eyes shot open as he writhed around on the floor of his quarters, tangled in bed sheets. He'd fallen out of bed, he realized, then quickly rescinded that conclusion for a new one: someone had pulled him out of bed. Callum glared up the figure standing next to him, the unintentional cause of his nightmare.

"Up and at 'em, sleepy prince," Rayla said. She knelt down and offered her hand to help Callum to his feet. Rayla was already dressed in her new Dragonguard armor. It made her look like her mother, Callum offhandedly noticed.

"I'm awake," Callum rubbed the last dredges of sleep from his eyes. "What was that about?"

"Ya slept like the dead and we've got to get a move on!" Rayla tossed a pile of clothes at him. "Quick, get dressed. If we leave soon, we can make it back before my guard shift tonight."

Callum just stared at her, the many questions about all this obvious on his face.

"It's a surprise. Meet me at the top of the spire and I'll explain." Rayla whirled around and ran out of the room.

Callum stood still for a moment. Then he shrugged and started to get dressed.

At the summit he found Rayla waiting. Her arms were crossed behind her back and she seemed to be bursting with excitement.

"So what's going on?"

"I couldn't stop thinkin' about what ya said last night about the Sky arcanum. How ya figured it out during your dark magic coma."

"Yeah," Callum said. He realized where Rayla might be going with this and held up his hands. "Don't worry though. I would never even think of using dark magic to do that again."

"I'd hope not, dummy," Rayla laughed. "I meant all the crazy visions ya had durin' it. That sounded really familiar for some reason."

"Tha's when it hit me!" She walked over to Callum and slung her arm around his shoulders. "Ya had a vision quest!"

"A... vision... quest?"

"Its where ya go on a spiritual journey to find out some deep seated truth about yerself. Basically what ya did in yer coma, and there are ways to do tha' _without_ dark magic!"

Callum's eyes lit up. "Rayla, that's amazing! You're amazing!" He pulled her close and kissed her.

"I try," Rayla smirked, trying to downplay the blush stretching all the way to the tips of her ears.

"Alright, I'm in. What do I have to do?"

Rayla pointed at the horizon, far off the west. "We'll have to go to the Bewilderness. It's a small forest on the outskirts of the Midnight Desert. If ya fly us there, I can handle the directions."

Callum nodded and summoned his wings. "Manus. Pluma. Volantus."

Rayla climbed onto Callum's back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Um," Callum looked back at her. This wasn't the typical position they flew in.

"So I can point where to go," Rayla explained.

"Alright, you just feel a lot heavier this way."

Rayla scowled at him.

"Not like that! You're a perfectly acceptable weight," Callum laughed nervously.

"Consider this strength trainin', then."

* * *

Callum never got tired of flying. Well, he got tired _from_ flying pretty frequently, flight used all sorts of muscles he didn't even know he had, but he never got bored of it. He and Rayla had taken off and soared over the field surrounding the Storm Spire. Every once and a while she'd shout out directions or point where and when to turn, but otherwise they just focused on the wind rushing against them and basked in the majesty of the moment. Callum wondered what he'd able to do once he understood the Moon primal. Would it compare to this? Could he do something even more amazing?

"We're almost there," Rayla said and pointed straight ahead. Off in the distance, Callum saw a cluster of trees forming a barrier between the plains around the Storm Spire and the Midnight Desert further to the west.

From the distance of the trees, Callum guessed they'd arrive in the next few minutes. As the quiet resumed save for the sounds of the wind, Callum couldn't help but think he'd forgotten something. Whatever it it was, he was too excited about the vision quest to dwell on it for long. Callum tried to push his concerns to the back of his mind. Surely if it was something important, he wouldn't have forgotten in it the first place.

Callum swooped down. Once they were close enough to the ground, Rayla jumped off his back and landed with a somersault.

"Showoff," Callum teased while doing a loop-de-loop of his own before coming to land a few feet away.

"Look who's talkin'." Rayla sprinted towards the forest edge and came to a stop in front of it. "I present to ya," she did a mock bow, "the Bewilderness!"

From the outside, the forest looked strange. The trees were adorned with large, unrecognizable fruits of all shapes and sizes, while the undergrowth was choked with flowers and weeds equally impossible for Callum to identify.

"This place looks weird even by Xadian standards."

"It's the plants," Rayla explained. "They have strange effects on people. Ya can eat them, smell them, rub them on yer skin, they all make ya see things just like yer dark magic coma. Back at the Silvergrove, the elders would send people with inner turmoil here to help find themselves. And the older kids would sneak off to go on vision quests for um... recreational purposes."

Callum glanced between Rayla and the forest.

"In other words, yer gonna see some serious sh-"

"I get the idea," Callum interrupted. He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "I'm ready."

Rayla pulled aside a large fern, exposing a path into the Bewilderness. "After ya."

"Moon arcanum, here I come!"


	2. The Bewilderness

The Bewilderness all at once seemed tiny and gigantic. Callum knew the forest wasn't particularly large or dense from seeing it overhead on the flight there. But now that he was inside, it felt like a labyrinth he might never escape from.

"Tha's why its called the Bewilderness. It bewilders ya," Rayla had explained. Yet they kept going deeper and deeper into the woods.

Callum searched around for any plants that seemed fit for his purposes. Apparently everything in the Bewilderness did something to you but that something could range from vision quest inducing to fatal.

"How about this?" He pointed to an orange moss coating a fallen log.

"Nope, tha' makes yer skin rot off wherever it touches."

"What about that mushroom?" He pointed to a toadstool covered in warty outgrowths.

"Tha's a doom shroom. It'll make ya see things, sure, but mostly all the fluid in yer eyes as it leaks out."

"Noted." He looked for something else to stand out against the overwhelming clutter of leaves. The two passed another cluster of trees and came to a clearing full of flowers resembling over-sized red dandelions. "And how will those kill me?"

Rayla scratched her chin and stared closer at the flowers. "Hmm, I don't think they will. Runaan taught me every poisonous plant and fungus in Xadia and those weren't one of them."

She grabbed the flower nearest to her by the stem and uprooted it. "Might be just wha' we're lookin' for."

"So do I eat it or lick it? Do I have to clear my mind first or something?"

Rayla took in a deep breath and blew on the flower. Like a dandelion, the flower head split apart and sent tiny florets flying at Callum's face along with a cloud of red dust. Callum sneezed and the remaining florets scattered in every direction.

"Feel anythin'?" Rayla asked.

Callum stood perfectly still and didn't answer. Rayla leaned in to see if he was okay. She noticed that Callum's pupils were dilated to twice the size they'd been previously. Either it was working or something had gone horribly wrong.

"Callum?" Again there was no answer. "Yer startin' to scare me."

After inhaling the not-dandelion's pollen, Callum saw the world melt away into indistinct but bright shapes and colors. He focused on a purplish blob he was at least fifty percent sure was Rayla.

"Callum, I need ya to-" her face started to shift and bubble, reforming into a lumpy mass of eyes and fangs, "-sever your arms and feed them to me. Slowly."

"I need my arms," Callum muttered and took step back from the thing that wasn't Rayla.

"Arms? Wha' are ya-" It started to change again, attempting to restore its face but ended up far too detailed. It looked as if he was staring at not-Rayla under a magnifying glass that somehow kept her head the same size as before. "-stalling for? You waste my time. I must wear your skin!"

Callum took another step away. He kept backing farther from the horror before him until he took one step too many and fell.

Rayla watched incredulously as Callum tumbled down a steep incline previously hidden by bushes. She chased after him. Back at the Silvergrove, she'd overheard older kids describe something like this. They called it a "bad trip," and it looked like Callum was having an absolutely terrible one. She had to find him before he hurt himself. Well, hurt himself more than he already did. The trampled bushes and broken branches suggested his fall hadn't been a gentle one.

She found Callum laying at the base of the incline. He was covered in leaves which, given the nature of the Bewilderness, probably only worsened his current state. Rayla knelt down and pulled Callum to a sitting position.

"Callum, talk to me. Feelin' any better?"

Callum stared right through her and started to paw at the air. "I can feel the cosmos!"

"Tha' would be a 'no,' then."

"The moon's in the cosmos. I wanna be in the cosmos like the moon," Callum said. He swayed to the side as if to lay down, realized and tried to sit up straight, only to start swaying again.

"The moon!" Rayla reasoned if she could keep Callum focused, maybe it would lessen his erratic behavior. "Yes, focus on the moon."

"You're the moon."

Was that like how a vision of Callum's mother helped him connect to the Sky arcanum? Rayla wondered and hoped so. Aside from keeping him in place this could mean the whole ill-fated venture might work out after all.

"I'm the moon," she nodded.

"Haha! My girlfriend is the moon." Callum fell over. "I need to do what you would do." He started making a snow angel in the leaf litter.

"Okay," Rayla agreed. "Well I wouldn't lay on the ground. I'd-"

"You're right!" Callum clambered to his feet, loosing his balance and falling. Rayla's arms shot out to catch him. "And you would do... this!"

Callum broke free from Rayla's hold and darted into the woods. He ran with his head down and arms at his sides in a clear imitation of her, except Callum was also saying "Woopwoopwoopwoop!" as he sprinted.

"I... I don't make a sound like tha' when I run."

* * *

Back at the Storm Spire, the thing Callum forgot hadn't forgotten him. Ibis had sat waiting to begin today's lesson for two hours now with no sign of his student.

The sky mage should have returned home as soon as Queen Zubeia awoke, but he couldn't bring himself to. Callum was a duteous and enthusiastic student with incredible natural talent. The boy figured out flying, something few skywing mages ever mastered, in a day by literally winging it. Let alone the fact that he was a human capable of primal magic at all. How could Ibis say no to Callum's request to teach him? Now, like the human in question, Ibis found himself somewhere between an honorary member of the Dragonguard and long-term guest of the queen.

That being said, if Callum was going to so flagrantly ignore him, Ibis might reconsider. It wasn't like Callum to miss a lesson. At the very least he could have told Ibis something came up.

Ibis could wait no longer. He would find Callum and give the prince a piece of his mind. That proved easier said than done. Ibis searched the barracks, the pinnacle, even scouted the surrounding field from the air. There was no sign of Callum.

He spied a sunfire elf, one of the troops Janai had left to support the fledgling new Dragonguard, on lookout. Ibis flew over to her and dismissed his wings.

"Have you seen Callum?"

"Ze human? No."

Now Ibis started to worry. Skipping a lesson was one thing, but if Callum left the spire itself without telling anyone...

"Thank you. I think I need to speak to her highness."

The sunfire guard nodded and escorted Ibis to Zubeia's chambers. The Dragon Queen sat coiled in the center of the massive hall while Zym flitted around, chasing a bird that wandered in.

"Your majesty," Ibis and the sunfire guard bowed before Zubeia.

"Greetings, Ibis," Zubeia's warm but deep voice rumbled through the walls.

"Have you seen Callum? He appears to have vanished from the Storm Spire."

Zubeia titled her her head to the side. "He did not tell you? The Dragonguard Rayla asked if I might reschedule her watch for tonight so she might take Callum to the Bewilderness."

Ibis' jaw hit the floor. "What?! I'd almost prefer he was in trouble than to have abandoned my lessons for _that_."

"She said it was so that the young mage could be sent on a 'vision quest,'" Zubeia explained.

"Is that what they're calling it now?" Ibis crossed his arms. "There's only one reason for a couple to sneak off to a secluded forest. I expected better of him."

The Dragon Queen chuckled. "Let them have their fun. I know what it is like to be young and in love. And when they return," Zubeia lowered her voice and barred her many, many teeth, "I will discipline them appropriately."

* * *

Rayla followed the trail of footprints, and skid marks from where Callum tripped and picked himself back up, all the way to the edge of the forest. The wrong edge. She stood at the entrance to the Midnight Desert. Green rapidly gave way to obsidian sands and a few long dead tree stumps. At least the lack of foliage made Callum easy to spot.

"Moon rocks!" Out on the sands, Callum hefted a small boulder and tossed it to the side. From the pile of rocks around him, Rayla guessed he's been at this for awhile. The effects of the plant had to wear off soon. She hoped so, at least.

"Go back to the moon, moon rocks!" Callum shouted again while picking up another stone.

Something stirred in a patch of sand freshly exposed to the daylight. Rayla's heart froze. Emerging from the sand was a soulfang serpent, no, two soulfang serpents, very upset at having their sleep disturbed.

There was no time to warn him. Rayla lunged towards Callum, unsheathing her twin blades as she ran. The serpents reared up to strike. She slammed into Callum and both of them went sprawling on the ground. The soulfang serpents attacked. Rayla swung her blade.

In the split second before it was all over, Rayla noticed it wasn't two serpents at all, but a single one with two heads. One head sunk its fangs into her wrist while the other bit Callum in the side. At the very least, Rayla would die content that her blade chopped the serpent in twain immediately afterwards. Everything went black.


	3. Well, This is Awkward

Pain seared through Callum's wrist. At least the pain appeared to overpower the fog his mind was previously enveloped in. Callum groaned and sat up. Before he even finished opening his eyes, he realized something was different.

The moon! He could feel it in every fiber of his being, just like he'd felt the sky. It could mean only one thing.

"It worked!" Callum looked around for Rayla. He was outside of the forest and in the Midnight Desert for some reason, but he'd worry about later. "I understand the Moon arcanum! I... oh no!"

Laying on the sand to left of him was _him_. Callum stared aghast at his body.

"On second thought, I think I'm still hallucinating." As Callum spoke he noticed his voice sounded off. It was softer, almost akin to Rayla's "Human Rayla" impression.

Callum's body stirred beside him.

"Ugh, wha' are ya shoutin' about?" That was Callum's suddenly accented voice coming from his body, but it certainly wasn't Callum saying it. "Wait, why do I sound so-" the question trailed off into a bloodcurdling scream as Callum's body stared at Callum. "Am... am I dead?"

Callum looked down, afraid of what he would see. Given his body's question, he expected to see himself as a disembodied spirit but was met with something else entirely.

"Rayla?" Callum asked as he stared at his, no, her body.

That prompted Callum's body to inspect itself with a similar reaction. "Callum?"

Callum held out a purple, four-fingered hand. His body, no, Rayla in his body, did the same with his, or her, human one.

Their hands met. The tactile proof being the final straw for accepting what happened. They both screamed.

"Please tell me I'm still hallucinating!" Callum pleaded.

"No," Rayla gulped, "its... its real. Well, I don't know if _yer _hallucinatin', but I'm not and this is... definitely a thing tha's happenin'."

"How?"

Rayla clutched at her side, which was technically his side because it was Callum's side but he was Rayla... Callum shook his head. This would never make sense.

"The serpent," Rayla said while gingerly removing her hand from her side. Her eyes widened. "The serpent!"

"What serpent?"

Rayla scrambled around on the sand in search of the dead reptile. She had to find proof it really happened to confirm her theory.

"Aha!" She snatched at something behind Callum. "This one!" Rayla held up the severed front half the soulfang serpent.

Callum cringed. Once he was certain it was dead, however, curiosity took over. "Its got two heads."

"And it bit us."

"I guess that explains why my wrist is killing me, er, your wrist, our wrist?"

"It explains a lot more than tha'. I'd heard legends about two-headed soulfang serpents bein' able to swap people's souls if they were bitten at the same time, but I didn't think they were true."

Callum massaged his wrist. It was sore and he could feel two tiny incisions from the serpent's fangs, but it wasn't swollen or showing any signs of envenomation. "Did those legends say how to un-swap souls, by any chance?"

Rayla nodded. "Just have the snake bite ya again."

"The snake that you killed?"

"Oh."

An anxious silence descended over the two.

Callum laughed to hide his fear. "Well, this is awkward."

* * *

The sun hung low in the sky, almost touching the horizon. It would be dark soon and back at the Storm Spire there was still no sign of Callum or Rayla. Ibis grew worried. Even if Callum ran off to some local make-out point, he should have returned long before now. Especially when the Bewilderness was on the edge of the Midnight Desert. No one in their right mind would stay anywhere near that expanse of soul-eating monsters after dark.

"If her highness asks for me, tell her I'm going to find Callum and Rayla. I believe they may be in danger," Ibis told the Sunfire guard he'd spoken to earlier in the day.

The guard saluted him. Ibis took wing and, despite his annoyance over the possibility, honestly hoped Callum and Rayla had just lost track of time.

* * *

"On the bright side, I can do Moon magic now! Know any interesting spells?"

Rayla shook her head. They resumed their march through the desert, sticking close to the treeline leading back to the Bewilderness.

"Come on, you have to know something. I already tried historia viventem and all that did was show what some soulfang serpents were up to yesterday. They slithered around and sucked the souls out of some animals, big surprise."

"Just because I'm a Moonshadow elf doesn't mean I know moon mage spells. Do ya know dark magic spells just because yer a human?"

"Point taken. I was just hoping you might know any combat oriented ones since its getting late and the serpents will be out again soon. Why can't we go back in the Bewilderness, again?"

"I'd rather take my chances with the snakes than risk either of us goin' all loony."

"I was that bad?"

"Worse," Rayla grinned. "I don't make a sound like tha' when I run," she quietly added under her breath.

"What was that last part?"

"Nothin'."

They kept walking in silence for awhile.

Callum broke the quiet sometime later. "You know, setting aside how terrifying this is, its also kind of neat. We're literally walking in each other's shoes."

If Rayla agreed, she didn't show it.

"For example, I always wondered what a pair of these would feel like."

Rayla whipped her head around, mortified, then relaxed when she saw Callum running his fingers up and down her horns. Or were they his horns at the moment?

"They can't feel things," he rapped his knuckles against one horn, "but they can _feel_ things."

"I know, had 'em my whole life," Rayla rolled her eyes.

Giving in to Callum's infectious curiosity, Rayla stared down at her hands to inspect her new pinkies. Callum's old pinkies? This was giving her a migraine.

"I thought maybe I'd understand pinkos just by havin' them, but nope. They're still completely useless."

"Not true. Pinkies can be used for all sorts of things."

"Like?"

"Being fancy when you hold a cup. My step-dad always said, 'when in doubt, pinkie out!'" Callum tried to demonstrate only to realize he couldn't anymore. He frowned, surprised at how much he already missed his extra fingers. "And you can pinkie-swear. Its the most unbreakable promise two humans can make... when you're ten."

"I rest my case."

Callum returned to his fascination with Rayla's, or now his, horns. He prodded at the tips with his index fingers. "They're pointier than they look."

"Careful with the tips or-"

"Ow!"

"-you'll hurt yerself."

Callum nursed his cut index finger.

"Wait, ya actually broke the skin?! They're not _tha'_ sharp."

"Your entire body is a weapon," Callum pouted.

Rayla shook her head and giggled. She knew what Callum was doing. His antics helped keep the existential dread of their situation away.

The last rays of daylight crested over the dunes. Night was imminent and the soulfang serpents were soon to return.

"Are ya sure ya can't fly us back to the Storm Spire?" Rayla asked, her voice wavering in a way she tried to pass off as a byproduct Callum's awkward teenage body rather any anxiety on her part.

"Not while while you're the one using my arms. I could try and put sky runes on your arms if I had some paint and a brush but I don't see us finding any here."

"Then we'll need to find somewhere safe to spend the night."

"What about that rock?" Callum pointed farther off into the desert.

Rayla followed where Callum was pointing and saw a large boulder, at least ten feet tall, emerging from the dunes.

"Ya want us to just perch on top of a rock until mornin'?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

Rayla slumped her shoulders. There wasn't much real estate in a desert. "No. Let's just hope the serpents can't climb."

They trekked to the boulder, making it just as the sun dipped past the horizon. Rayla stared up to its summit.

"There should be enough space up top for us," she looked back at Callum. "My swords, please."

Callum unsheathed Rayla's blades. As he withdrew them, they snapped into their hook form much to Ralya and Callum's astonishment.

"How did ya know how to do tha'?"

Callum shrugged. "Muscle memory, I guess."

Rayla sank her blades into the rock above and started climbing. Once she reached the top, she threw the swords down so Callum could follow her.

"By the way," Callum remarked as pulled himself up on to the flat top of the boulder. Rayla grabbed his hands to help him the rest of the way. "With this whole... situation, what do we if one of us has to use the bathroom."

"Oh we're gettin' back to the Storm Spire before tha's a problem."

Callum shied away from her. "But what if, hypothetically speaking, one of us had to go right now."

Rayla glared daggers at him. "Then they would hold it!"

"Right, good to know."

Hisses echoed from beneath their perch on the rock. The soulfang serpents were starting to wake up. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

**_The chapter was originally going to be a lot longer, but I felt it would be better to split it in two rather than have it end up so much longer than the others. Also its too bad there's no audio component to fanfiction, as at least while writing this, half the humor for me came from the idea of imaging what it would be like to actually hear Callum and Rayla's voice actors speak all this dialogue in each other's accents._**


	4. Battle on the Big Rock

_**The chapter's title is a partial spoof of the Jurassic World short film, "Battle at Big Rock."**_

* * *

Soulfang serpents could indeed climb the rock. It took some effort on their part, due to how sheer the walls were, but for every serpent that lost its purchase and fell, another made steady progress up.

"It'll be okay. We've got the high ground," Rayla said to comfort herself as much as Callum. She had her blades at the ready for any snakes that reached the summit.

Meanwhile, Callum had his back to Rayla, staring down the edge on the opposite side. Once a serpent got close enough, he would be ready to blow them back down. A couple were getting a little too close for comfort. Callum started to draw a rune.

"Aspi..." he trailed off as he realized his finger was tracing empty air. He started again.

"Aspiro!" The rune didn't form, and the spell didn't work.

"Aspiro!" Still no results.

On the other end of the rock, a soulfang serpent poked its head over the edge. Rayla swung with her blade and despite the snake being a perfectly stationary target, she overshot and missed.

"Wha'?" She swung a second time just as the serpent tried to lunge at her. This time the blade connected, but just barely. Her strike knocked the snake off the boulder and sent it tumbling down.

Still having no luck with aspiro, Callum tried to cast fulminis next.

"Fulmi..." he didn't bother finishing as the rune still wouldn't form. Callum looked over his shoulder to check on Rayla. "Something's wrong! I can't do any Sky magic."

"Havin' my own problems here," Rayla responded. Two more serpents made it to the top and all she could manage glancing blows against them. Rayla growled in frustration. "Yer body is so uncoordinated!"

"My... body..." Something clicked in Callum's mind. "That's it!" He whirled around and grabbed Rayla by the shoulders, turning her to face him. "I didn't figure out the Moon arcanum, your body already had it. That's why I can't do Sky magic now, but since you're in my body-"

"-I can!" Rayla finished.

Soulfang serpents were reaching the top from all directions. "Quick, cast fulminis!"

Rayla blanched. "I don't know the rune!"

"You've seen me cast it tons of times!"

"Not all of us have a eidetic memory! Wait, memory!" Rayla pressed her blades into Callum's hands. "Muscle memory!"

Callum got the idea and nodded. He turned back to the rapidly approaching serpents.

"There should be a drawing of the fulminis rune in my sketchbook. I'll try to hold them off."

While his swings were nothing compared to Rayla on a good day, Callum did far better than any attempt at sword fighting he'd made before. Rayla's blades felt comfortable in his heads, a familiarity like they were a natural part of him. His reflexes were faster. The serpents were quickly dispatched.

"Hey, I'm doing it!"

On her side, the serpents continued their approach while Rayla hastily thumbed through Callum's sketchbook. She stepped back, pushing herself and Callum away from the serpents but closer to the edge. Finally she came upon a page of runes, with a significant drawback Callum neglected to inform her of.

"They're not labeled!"

"Little busy here," Callum said while beheading another serpent.

She would just have to try one and hope for the best. With no time to make a more informed decision, she picked at random and traced the rune in the air.

"Fulminis!"

Lightning shot from Rayla's open hand and zapped the nearest serpent. More bolts arced from its body to hit other serpents, which repeated the process until every snake on the boulder was electrocuted. Callum and Rayla stared over their respective edges of the rock to ensure the last of the soulfang serpents were dead.

"Rayla, you did it!" Callum embraced her.

Rayla leaned into the hug. "Ya weren't so bad yerself. If ya ever get tired of bein' a mage, ya'd have a promisin' future as an assassin."

"I'll keep that in mind," Callum laughed. "But I think spells suit me more than swords."

"Same here. I love ya, Callum, but I don't love bein' ya."

Another revelation struck. "Wait, if you're me, and you can do Sky magic... then you can fly us out of here!"

Rayla fought the urge to slap herself or Callum for not realizing this sooner. "Yer a genius, dummy!" She separated from their hug to make space for the coming transformation.

"Manus, Pluma, Volantus!" Rayla felt hundreds of feathers burst from her skin while the bones in her hands warped and reformed themselves.

"I'm not sure wha' I was expectin'," she tried an experimental flap of her new wings, "but tha' still felt weirder than I thought it would."

"You get used to it pretty quick." Callum wrapped his arms around Rayla's shoulders and placed his feet on top of hers in a reverse of their normal flying position. "But you won't have to because we'll be back at the Storm Spire in no time!"

Rayla nodded and flapped again, this time with the strength to push them off the ground. She kept flapping and they rose higher. Next she tried to angle her downward strokes to propel them forward. The boulder gradually shrank in Callum's field of view as he peered over Rayla's shoulder.

"You're doing it!"

"I'm doin' it! I'm-ach!" Rayla's side erupted in agony. She faltered in midair and tried to course correct with no luck.

The pair fell out of the sky, plummeting towards the black sands. Every attempt to right herself only shot another burst of pain to her side, the side of her bite, she realized. Able to do nothing else, Rayla joined Callum in screaming.

Luckily the sands broke their fall. Rayla coughed and brought a now wingless hand to her aching side. Callum was still clutching onto her for dear life so at least she already knew he was okay.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, I've got a stitch in my side from tha' blasted snakebite."

"Really? My wrist stopped hurting hours ago."

"Lucky you," Rayla scowled, not at him, but at the indignity of the whole situation. "Well, it seems I'm not up to flyin' us."

"It could be worse. At least I don't have to go to the bathroom anymore."

As the implications of Callum's statement sunk in, Rayla scooted away and glared daggers at him.

"I thought we were gonna die!"

Rayla grabbed him by the collar and gave her most withering look. "Not a word of this to anyone. _Ever._"

Hisses interrupted their conversation. Rayla and Callum sat up and were greeted by ring of serpents attracted by the collision. Callum took Rayla's hand in his and they and readied for whatever came next.

"You there! Watch out!" A shadow fell over the two.

They looked up and saw the silhouette of a Skywing elf blocking out the moon. The figure tossed down a cluster of spherical objects which ignited on contact with the sand. Each landed in a circle around Callum and Rayla, creating a wall of smoke and fire that kept the soulfang serpents at bay. Their Skywing savior descended, fluttering to a gentle landing in front of them.

Illuminated by the the fire, Callum and Rayla gasped at who stood before them.

"I figured I should invest in some protection after what happened last time," Nyx gestured to the dying flames surrounding the three. "Well don't just gawk, I'd say some thanks are in order."

"Um, thanks," Callum finally said.

"Of all the people I'd never expect to see again, ya'd be pretty high on the list, Nyx," Rayla added.

"How did you find us?" Callum looked around as the ring of flames gave out, leaving only a rapidly dispersing cloud of smoke.

"Don't worry," Nyx said in response to Callum's nervous mien, "the serpents hate the smoke as much as the fire. They'll stay away from here for a good while. As for your question, would you believe that your kindness lead me to a change of heart and I now devout myself to rescuing unfortunate souls lost in the desert."

Rayla and Callum shook their heads.

"Nope."

"Not a chance."

Nyx tossed her head back and laughed. "But its true. People will pay almost anything after you've saved them from certain death."

"Tha' sounds more like the Nyx I remember."

At what she assumed to be Callum's remark, Nyx cocked one eyebrow and leaned forward. "Are you doing an accent?"

"Um-"

Callum in Rayla's body stepped between the two. "Oh, he's just practicing his elf impression! Sure the war's over but you can never be too careful."

Nyx narrowed her eyes. "And Rayla, what happened to that delightful Moonshadow brogue of yours?"

"Uh... Ah dunnae kinn whit yer talkin' abit, Ahm 'spikin jist loch Ah always dae," Callum spoke.

Rayla held her head in her hands and waited for this travesty to be over.

"Naethin' it ay th' ordinary coz thes is hoo Ah talk. Me. Rayla. Who Ah definitely am."

"Okay fine, he's Callum and I'm Rayla!" she shouted, unable to stomach the prospect of hearing more of Callum's attempt at her accent.

Nyx stared at the two of them. "What?"

"A wee soolfang serpent-" Callum stopped and cleared his throat, "I mean, a soulfang serpent with two heads bit us and we ended up in each other's bodies."

"You're serious. This isn't a joke?"

Callum and Rayla shook their heads again.

Nyx doubled over in laughter. "Do you have any _idea_ how small the chances of that happening are? You'd, haha, you'd have to find a two headed serpent, be lucky enough for it to bite both of you, and at the same time, otherwise you'd just get your soul sucked out like normal, the odds are one a million! No, a million-billion! You're the luckiest and unluckiest people in the world!"

Rayla crossed her arms and Callum frowned while they waited for Nyx to finish her fit of giggling.

"Got that out of your system?" Callum asked once Nyx's chortles appeared to slow down.

"Yeah, wait," she took a breath only to use the refresh of air to keep laughing. "Ha... ha... Now I'm good."

Nyx brought her fingers to her lips and whistled loud enough to shatter glass. "Ambler's on its way." She walked over to Callum and Rayla and slung her arms around them. "And fortunately for you two, I'm in a generous mood."

She had also been inspecting the pair. In the three months since their first meeting, the two had definitely moved up in the world. Between Rayla's unmistakable Dragonguard armor and the sky runes on Callum's arms, they looked to have become the sort of people who could very profitable to rescue.

* * *

_**Callum's Rayla impression is courtesy of a translator website called " .uk" which I found on TvTropes. With Christmas only a day and a half way there will probably be a bit of a gap between this and the next chapter, but the story is far from over. Happy holidays and thanks for all the reviews and favorites so far.**_


	5. Crikey!

_**Sorry for the long gap, I hope everyone had a happy holidays and happy new year in the meantime!**_

_**If anyone wondered what the OC tag in this story was about, now's his time at last.**_

* * *

Once they were all situated atop the ambler, Nyx prepared to address her two passengers. At least that's what Callum and Rayla assumed the Skywing elf was doing, as she paced back and forth, occasionally glancing at them and muttering half-formed sentences under her breath. This strange display went on for several minutes.

"Ugh!" Nyx threw her arms in the air, "Every time I start to say something I get mixed up on who I'm trying to talk to and just... ugh! This is too confusing."

She snapped her fingers. "I've got it! From now on," Nyx pointed at Rayla in Callum's body, "your name is Calya," she then pointed to Callum in Rayla's body, "and your name will be Rayllum."

"Well now we're the ones who'll be confused," Rayla complained.

"Also, what kind of name is Rayllum?" Callum asked.

"Oh, Rayllum is very popular. You'd be surprised."

An impish grin climbed up the sides of Callum's face. "Weel, Ah guess if Ahm gonnae be Rayllum, Ah micht as well act th' part."

Rayla groaned and covered her face with her hand. "Look what ya've done, Nyx. Ya created a monster!"

"Noo wa woods ye say somethin' loch 'at? Ahm nae a monster! Th' people cannae git enough ay Rayllum, dornt ye ken."

"How long until we reach the Storm Spire?" Rayla stared over the edge of their canopy on the ambler's back, watching its slow, plodding footsteps.

"You want me to take you _there_? While you're still like _that_?"

"Yeah" Callum said, abandoning his Rayllum act. A few feet away, Rayla breathed a sigh of relief. "If anyone knows how to fix this, it'd be the Dragon Queen."

Nyx tsked and shook her head. "All she'd tell you is what I'm about to say now. The only way to swap your souls back is to get bitten again."

"But we can't. The serpent that bit us is dead."

"And there's the rub, two headed serpents are rarer than diamonds. It could take years, decades even, before you find another."

Nyx soaked in the the way the color ran from Rayla and Callum's faces, basked in the horror in their eyes. Then she laughed. "I'm just kidding, I know a guy. We're on our way now."

* * *

Hours passed as the ambler trundled towards whatever destination Nyx set. It would be sunrise sooner than later. Nyx stayed up at the ambler's head, leaving Rayla and Callum to themselves on the back. Between the recent battle, being stuck in each other's bodies, and the uncertainty of who or what Nyx was taking them to, neither could manage to sleep. Instead they sat with their backs to the walls of the ambler's saddle and passed the time looking at the stars.

"Let me guess," Callum said while pointing at a constellation, "that one's also Garlath killing people in horrible ways?"

"They're not all named after Garlath. There's one named after... um, I think..." Rayla's finger wavered back and forth as she searched for any constellation she knew that didn't involve Garlath the Annihilator. "Uh..."

Callum chuckled. "Its funny, being here again. Brings back a lot of memories."

"Yeah. Our first kiss..." Rayla slipped her hand over Callum's.

"Huh? That was our second kiss. Our first kiss was at the oasis-"

"Wha' part of 'we will _never_ speak of this again' did ya not understand?" Her grip on Callum's hand tightened threateningly.

"Okay fine, our first kiss was here," Callum shrugged. "Who's counting anyway?"

Silence enveloped them. Callum looked over at Rayla. "Hey, it would be weird if we kissed in each other bodies, right?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. Tha'd just be gross," she leaned towards him.

"Thought so," he puckered his lips.

"Don't even know why ya asked."

Their lips met.

Then the two instantly recoiled. Callum made exaggerated retching noises while Rayla wiped at her mouth.

"Eugh! I know what my own lips taste like now!" Rayla shuddered.

"It was like kissing a mirror! Not that I know what kissing a mirror is like."

Rayla stared at Callum.

"Okay fine, when I was twelve I practiced kissing with a mirror."

"Come on!" Rayla giggled, "Everyone knows if ya want to practice kissin', ya use pool of water with a good reflection. The wetness adds to the realism."

"You two are the biggest dorks I have ever met," Nyx shouted down from her spot on the ambler's head. "Seriously, I'm getting second-hand embarrassment just from listening."

"If you're going to eavesdrop," Callum said, "can you at least tell us who this guy you're taking us to is?"

Nyx jumped off the ambler's head and flew down to her passengers.

"He's an acquaintance of mine. A real expert on reptiles and soulfang serpents in particular."

"He won't me being a human, will he?" Callum asked.

"What? You're not a human, oh, wait-" Nyx slapped her forehead, "No _Rayllum_, he won't mind that _Calya_ is a human. He's a little," Nyx twirled her finger next to her ear, "eccentric. But he knows everything about soulfang serpents. For example, he sold me that new snake repellent you owe your lives to. By the way, those don't come cheap so I'll be adding their cost to my fee."

"We never agreed to any fee," Rayla narrowed her eyes.

"Would look at that, we're nearly there!" Nyx said, ignoring Rayla's comment. "I've got to go check on, you know, things up top." With a flap of her wings, Nyx flew back up to the ambler's head and left the question of fees unanswered.

* * *

Early morning arrived at the same time the ambler reached its destination. Sunlight crept over the sands, illuminating a small home surrounded by a crude wooden fence lined with sacks of inflammable snake repellent like those previously used by Nyx. The house was built conservatively, only one story and low to the ground with permanently open doors and windows to help with heat dispersion.

Rayla and Callum descended the ambler via ladder while Nyx flew ahead to let the house's owner know they were coming. That proved unnecessary as a figure had already emerged from the house, dashing towards them. He was an Earthblood elf, wearing loose fitting light brown clothing, perfect for protecting his skin from the sun while also loose enough to breathe in the hot desert climate.

"Crikey! What are you doin' here at this hour, Nyx?" The Earthblood elf asked.

Nyx landed and gestured for Callum and Rayla to come over. "Erwen, these are Callum and Rayla. They're having a bit of a soulfang serpent problem."

Erwen did a small bow in Rayla and Callum's direction. "Trees to meet you!"

Callum's eyes widened and he smiled wider than he ever had before.

"Don't encourage him," Rayla warned Erwen before Callum could speak.

Erwen inspected the two while stroking his chin. "Well, neither of you are that I could fix that anyway. What's the problem, exactly?"

"The problem is that I'm Callum."

"And I'm Rayla."

Erwen nodded. "Okay."

Callum frowned. "Do I look like a Callum to you?"

"I don't judge," Erwen shrugged.

"We got our souls swapped," Rayla said.

"Holy smokes! Why didn't you say so?"

"You can fix them up, right?" Nyx asked. "You wouldn't stop boasting about the two headed serpent you caught last time I was here."

Erwen's expression darkened. "Sorry, I'm fresh out."

"Fresh... out?" Callum struggled to hide his mixture of confusion and frustration. With this latest complication, he'd finally reached his limit. "How could you possibly be 'fresh out'?! Who else would want a two headed soulfang serpent?!"

"This sheila came by in the middle of the night askin' for it. She was a human like you," Erwen pointed at Rayla, then realized Callum was the human and pointed at him, then realized Rayla was the one with the human body and pointed to her again.

"There's a human named Sheila all the way out here?"

"No," Erwen laughed. "Not Sheila,_ a_ sheila, a girl. Her name was somethin' else, I don't remember. It started with a C, I'm pretty sure. She wanted the serpent for a dark magic spell."

A pit formed in Callum's stomach.

Rayla blanched. "And ya just _gave_ it to her!? For dark magic?!"

"Hey," Erwen held up his hands defensively, "I study snakes who have to devour the souls of innocent creatures just to live. Nature's cruel, I don't judge what you need to do to survive out here."

"Was her name Claudia?" Callum blurted out.

Erwen smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that it was it! You know her?"

* * *

_**I regret nothing.**_

_**If Callum's right that Earthblood elves have Australian accents, and I'd created an Earthblood elf who loves reptiles... I couldn't resist. At least I reigned myself in enough that his name only phonetically sounds like Irwin.**_


	6. Breakfast at Erwen's

To say that Ibis had a bad day would be dishonest. He had a _terrible_ day. At the Bewilderness, there was no sign of Rayla or Callum, not that he had a chance to look particularly closely. Coming to the Storm Spire from far away to at the behest of Queen Zubeia, Ibis wasn't familiar with the surrounding lands. He had no idea what he was getting into venturing inside the Bewilderness.

Ibis steered clear of the plants just to be safe. But had he realized just how potent the forest's effects could be, he would have been even more careful. As it stood, Ibis made the fateful mistake of pushing a large purple fern aside rather than walk around it. The areas of his skin that made contact with the fern's fronds reacted within minutes. His skin blistered and Ibis began to feel delirious. Everything afterwards was an incoherent blur. Given what happened next, Ibis was happy to not remember. By the next morning, Ibis awoke in the branches of a large tree near the edge of the forest, completely naked. He spent hours combing the surrounding area for his clothes while trying to ignore a furiously itchy rash covering some very unpleasant locations. Whether the rash was an expansion of the blistered portions of his arm that spread to the rest of his body, or if it he obtained this rash in some other manner, was a question Ibis didn't want to contemplate.

He stumbled out of the Bewilderness and into the sparse, patchy grass on the border with the Midnight Desert. Not only did he feel like the primal stone in his staff exploded in his face, Ibis also had nothing to show for it. He was no closer to finding his missing pupil. Now that he knew what the Bewilderness was like, Ibis feared the worst.

The sun barely surpassed the horizon, leaving the desert sands bathed in an orange-pink hue. Ibis shielded his eyes from the morning light. Sticking out from the dunes and the sun was a plume of smoke rising upwards. Ibis narrowed his eyes. The smoke came from far off, deep into the Midnight Desert. But he had no other leads.

"Manus, Pluma, Volantus!" Ibis summoned his mage wings and took off. Still sluggish from whatever effect the Bewilderness' plants had on him, Ibis lost control almost immediately and crashed into a pile of sand. After several other false starts, he managed to remain airborne and flew off in the direction of the smoke.

* * *

Nyx, Rayla, and Callum sat around the fire pit outside Erwen's house. The Earthblood elf walked in a semicircle, handing each of them a plate containing freshly cooked lumps of meat in a vaguely shrimp-like shape.

"Thanks, Erwen. Ya didn't have to make us breakfast," Rayla said. She gave her shrimp an experimental poke. Something seemed a little off about it.

"Don't mention it," Erwen took a final plate for himself and dug in. "It was the least I could do, what with not bein' able to help with the whole serpent thing."

"These are great," Callum said around a mouthful of shrimp meat. "I didn't know you could find shrimps in the desert. Is there a lake or river around here I just didn't see?"

Erwen chortled. "These aren't actual shrimps, mate. I just call 'em that because they taste similar. No, these are Midnight dune lice. I plucked 'em off the legs of Nyx's ambler."

Callum's chewing halted. "Dune... lice?"

Nyx had a similar reaction, but then shrugged and kept eating.

"I'm really sorry by the way," Erwen repeated, "If you had just shown up a few hours earlier I could've fixed you two up and still gave the soulfang serpent to that Claudia girl."

"Why do ya care about helpin' her so much?" Rayla scowled. "She's goin' to use it for dark magic!"

"Yeah, but she said it was really important, and I like helpin' people," Erwen smiled, still not understanding Rayla's objections. "For a human to be all alone this deep into Xadia? In the Midnight Desert no less? She must've been in some trouble."

"She's not in trouble, she _is_ trouble!" Rayla shouted.

"She is," Callum nodded while attempting to discretely remove the 'shrimp' from his plate. "But she also used to be my friend."

"Yeah," scoffed Rayla, "before she tried to kidnap ya, helped her da' invade Xadia, and attacked Soren and Ezran with illusions so Viren could try to kill Zym!"

"What I'm saying is that maybe I could reason with her."

"Right now yer the person she'd be the absolute least likely to listen to," Rayla said while pointing at herself to remind Callum what body he was currently in.

Callum smirked. "Maybe not, but _Callum_ could."

"Wait... No. No! Not a chance! Tha's a disaster waitin' to happen."

"All you'd have to do is talk her into giving you the serpent. I'll coach you through everything to say."

"Even if I did agree to it, which I don't, we don't even know where she is."

"You could just follow her tracks," Erwen suggested. Rayla, Callum, and Nyx stared blankly at him. "It's a desert. Until the wind picks up, her footprints should still lead from here to wherever it is she's gone off to."

Callum looked hopefully at Rayla. "Its our only chance. Unless you want to try and find another soulfang serpent."

"And that really could take years," Nyx said.

Rayla clenched her fists and took in a deep breath. "Fine. Tell me wha' to say."

Callum didn't answer. He gaze wandered away from Rayla and towards a point high in the sky.

"Callum?" Rayla asked.

Callum's face blanched. "Uh, I uh," he stammered. "I've got to do... um, I have to be somewhere else right now!" Callum scrambled to his feet and ran off behind Erwen's house. The others stared at his departing figure. Rayla got up to pursue him, but before she could, a Skywing elf dropped out of the air and landed in front of her.

"Callum!" Ibis yelled. He was glowering with a level of anger Rayla had never seen from the normally reserved mage. "First you don't show up for my lesson, then you vanish without a trace! I thought you-" Ibis paused and looked around. "Who are these people?"

Erwen waved and smiled. "Trees to meet you!"

"Yes, _Callum_," Nyx said, "tell him who we are."

Rayla started to answer by Ibis cut her off.

"You know what? I don't care!" He grabbed Rayla by the shoulder and led her away from the others. "Ignoring your studies for this, I expected better from you," he furiously whispered.

"Um," Rayla tried to explain the situation but Ibis wouldn't stop talking. From the way he spoke, it sounded like he'd rehearsed this on the flight over.

"I understand you're at a certain age, on the cusp of manhood, and you're eager to explore what it offers."

"Wait, wha'?"

"But there is a time and a place for such things, a time that isn't during our lessons."

"Wha' are you_ talkin'_ about!?"

Ibis didn't seem to hear her.

"If you cannot control these pubescent urges then I might have to reconsider mentoring you."

"Pubescent urges?!"

* * *

Several yards away, Callum pressed himself up against the wall of Erwen's house. He tried to make himself as a small as possible, hoping that some of Rayla's stealth techniques had rubbed off on him the way her fighting ones had. Callum slapped his forehead. How could he have been so stupid? That's what he had forgotten; to tell Ibis about the vision quest. The Skywing elf was no doubt furious with him. Callum would just stay back here and wait for Ibis to calm down a little before showing himself. Perhaps Rayla could explain what happened. Ibis wouldn't be as angry, if at all, with her. Except Rayla was in his body. Callum slapped his forehead again. He sighed and started to leave his hiding spot to save Rayla from Ibis' wrath but never got the chance.

Rayla stormed around the corner, just barely reacting fast enough to not slam into Callum. She crossed her arms and shot Callum a withering scowl. "What did ya do?"

"I forgot to tell Ibis we were going on a vision quest," Callum slumped his shoulders and stared at the ground.

"Well guess what? Ibis thinks we went to the Bewilderness to make out! He tried to give me 'the talk' before I explained wha' was goin' on!" Rayla shuddered a little at the memory. "How could ya be so irresponsible?"

"It's not like I had a chance to tell him with you dragging me out of bed for that stupid vision quest. Its your fault we're here in the first place!" Callum instantly regretted his words as they left his mouth.

"Wait, I didn't meant it-" but Rayla had already ran off.


End file.
